Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Heat cruise past the Grizzlies, and Andrew Wiggins breaks 15K points

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The Heat boat-raced the depleted Grizzlies in Miami on the second night of a back-to-back. They scored easily on the break, absorbed rebounds and got steady scoring from the veterans.  

 

Coach Erik Spoelstra called it one of the most mature post-up games Bam Adebayo has played, and also said that the team would have held the Grizzlies to 110 points if not for the last minute and a half. 

 

The team kept getting to the line, Andrew Wiggins was getting anything he wanted on cuts and catch-and-shoot jumpers. Additionally, Tyler Herro and Norman Powell took turns ripping up the schemes en route to a 73-point first half. Yet their defense was compromised, allowing Jaylen Wells and GG Jackson to have one of their best nights of the season, combining for 13 field goals.

 

The Heat subsequently continued to overwhelm the lane with nine baskets, while the Grizzlies’ 3-point shooting and hustle kept them briefly within striking distance. 

 

The former eventually took an 18-point edge into the fourth quarter. They went cold for a stretch, but the Grizzlies could never take the game by the throat. 

 

The Heat won 136-120, and it was their eighth-highest scoring game of the season. Wiggins said in the locker room that, “When we are [a] full squad, everyone healthy, we’re very hard to deal with.” 

 

The only absence was Davion Mitchell’s.

 

Takeaways:

  • The Grizzlies put up a valiant effort, but they didn’t have enough firepower outside of GG Jackson and Ty Jerome to hang for long stretches. To boot, the third quarter was the most significant part of the game since five Heatles had multiple baskets, outscoring them by 13 points. That included nine digits from Kasparas Jakučionis, who scored on a backdoor cut, a corner trey, a fastbreak layup and freebies. 

 

  • The Heat’s offense was rolling, scoring 127.1 points per 100 possessions, good enough for the 88th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. On top of that, it was their second-straight game scoring at least 70 in the paint, which has only happened once early in the year between Nov. 7 and 8. And Wiggins scored 28 points on 90% shooting. 

 

  • Myron “mayhem” Gardner got into a slight dust-up at the end of the game with Scotty Pippen Jr. after the former set a hard screen. The latter didn’t like it, came all the way down court and shoved Gardner while the Heat were up 21 points with fewer than two minutes left. It spilled into the stands and both were ejected.

 

  • This was the 12th time the Heat have scored at least 70 points in the first half and remain undefeated in those games.

 

 

  • Herro, Powell and Wiggins scored between 14 and 19 points in the first half and neither shot below 62.5%, leaving the Grizzlies with more holes than Swiss cheese. Then Herro cooled off, but the other two carried the team in the second half, combining for 18 points on 64% shooting. 

 

 

  • Wiggins’ scoring pushed him past 15,000 regular-season points (15,007). Consider how the only other players in team history who scored at least 28 points on 90% shooting are LeBron James (31), Shaquille O’Neal (31), Hassan Whiteside (31) and Alonzo Mourning twice (43 & 29). Additionally, there are 26 NBA players with more career points than Wiggins. 

 

 

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Tyler Herro’s return in Atlanta propels the Heat’s 14th road win

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Tyler Herro returned in the Miami Heat’s first game after the All-Star break in the win against the Hawks in Atlanta, looking like he’d never left. His jumper was on target, and he dribbled past defenders for five shots in the paint.

 

“I feel good,” Herro said. “Just happy to be back here playing with my teammates.”

 

The Heat had payback on their mind for the Feb. 3 game, in which the Hawks blasted them on 2006 championship commemoration night. They built their largest first-half lead (15) mostly plowing into the lane while their deep shooting faltered. The Hawks sliced the advantage down to six going into intermission, and their biggest dent came from behind the arc, making seven treys in the second frame.  

 

The third quarter subsequently followed a similar script to the first, as the Heat briefly ran up a 17-point lead, courtesy of the bench’s intensity and accuracy. Still, the Hawks maintained a pulse as McCollum and Nickeil Alexander-Walker combined for six baskets on and off the dribble from short and long range. 

 

The visitors flashed a zone in the fourth quarter to throw off the Hawks’ rhythm, and they outhustled them up-and-down the court, plus cut them up in the half-court. The edge was eventually raised to 34 points, and the Hawks yielded before the final buzzer.

 

The Heat won 128-97. They scored 72 points in the lane, which ties their third-highest mark of the season.

Takeaways:

  • The Heat started their back-to-back, while the Hawks were on the second night of theirs, plus the latter was dead-legged on defense. The former had seven double-digit scorers log between 10 and 24 points. On top of that, they did so much damage in the fourth quarter (41 points) that coach Erik Spoelstra found garbage time minutes for Nikola Jović, who has struggled this season. It was also their sixth win this season by 30 points or better (31).

 

 

  • The Hawks’ offense broke, as they recorded 93.1 points per 100 possessions, good enough for the third percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. Onyeka Okongwu was their only starter to shoot better than 50% from the field (66.7), and their All-Star, Jalen Johnson, had a triple-double, but his abysmal shooting (27.3%) was a big help for the Heat.

 

  • Pelle Larsson was the only Heatle to play 30 minutes or more (31), while the rest of the starters logged between 24 and 27.

 

  • The Heat did a solid job on the glass, with eight players recording at least four rebounds. Kel’el Ware, specifically, was like a magnet for misses. The team preventing the Hawks from having successful second-chance opportunities was a difference maker, and so was punishing them for their 12 mistakes with 20 points off turnovers.

 

  • McCollum has averaged 19 points on a 54.5 effective field goal percentage in his career against the Heat, which included eight nights of endless artillery strikes. Friday was not much different as he kept the Hawks from falling apart with 20 points on 50% shooting. 

 

  • Herro was the team’s leading first-half scorer with 16 points on 62.5% shooting and later scored the back-breaking baskets in the fourth. Bam Adebayo also had an efficient dozen on close-range shots before intermission, which included two nice post-up moves. He didn’t keep it going, but the team didn’t need him to as the bench kept producing.

 

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The 2026 All-Star weekend mattered and more notes

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Everyone in the NBA owes a debt of gratitude to the old timers who treated the All-Star Game like it mattered. It would have been harder for the NBA to sell its product to TV partners if it were a joke, so the disrespect to the game that had gone on for way too long hopefully came to an end after Kawhi Leonard’s epic performance, Victor Wembanyama breaking the ice and Anthony Edwards’ MVP showing. 

 

Sure, there were few like Nikola Jokić and Luka Dončić who didn’t go as hard. They are presumably happy for their teammates, but who knows what they must’ve felt watching themselves get upstaged like that. Shame on them for the low RPMs.

 

The standard has been set for next season, yet there’s one wrinkle: many players before the game said they wanted to go back to an East v. West format, yet the current one works. The NBA should side with what the fans want.

 

The first good omen was the NBA’s signature theme song, performed by its composer, John Tesh, at midcourt. But there was abysmal transition defense early, then the intensity meter elevated and peaked in Game 3 (Stars v. World*) as Leonard dazzled with 31 digits on 84.6 percent accuracy. 

 

When they go hard like that, it’s worthy of Oscar Robertson and Julius Erving’s time. Fingers crossed the next hosting stars give it everything like Leonard did, and the younger stable treats the fans better than the last generation did.

 

The one part of the weekend the big-timers are lacking is the dunk contest for fear of their peers embarrassing them on an island. It’s reminiscent of boxing champions holding belts hostage by refusing to fight the best contenders in their division. 

 

Credit to the background players who prepare for it and use it as an opportunity to elevate their status. It was special to see the pride and joy on Keshad Johnson’s face as he walked into the press room carrying his trophy. Still, the lack of star power there is eternally disappointing.

 

Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins having memorable showdowns helped grow the game, too. There was a time when people would look forward to this, and now it’s dreaded. The last great one was Aaron Gordon against Zach LaVine in 2016. The last All-Star who competed in the dunk contest and the exhibition on the same weekend was Jaylen Brown in 2024, and before that, it was DeAndre Jordan in 2017.

 

From now on, the league should forget starting at 5PM ET, and Kevin Durant should get his eyes checked. How is it possible for Durant to be such a lethal marksman, yet not know what he’s seeing when watching All-Star games in which the men wore high shorts? Lots of people will thoughtlessly believe him after he said he didn’t see vigor. 

 

The 1992 game was a 43-point blowout, but the other ones of the decade were decided by an average of 13 points. Plenty of competitive games end in double-figure margins, and they weren’t BSing. No one’s saying it had playoff intensity, but they were real games.  Keep in mind that one 1990 had 17 blocks, in 1995 there were 21 and last year’s had one. The 1993 game was decided by three points in overtime, and both squads combined for 28 steals. 

 

Every era is special, and no one should stand for a warped re-telling of NBA history. 

 

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat go into the All-Star break on a positive note after beating the Pelicans

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The Heat powered their way to victory in New Orleans against the struggling Pelicans. Their half-court attack was ineffective, but they made up for it in transition.

 

Jaime Jaquez said it was a high priority to get a win before the All-Star break, and that, “It’s for momentum. Coming after the break, we know it’s going to be a big push for us, and it started with this game…”

 

Their biggest issue was containing Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy III’s rim pressure as NOLA went cold from deep. It didn’t help the other side that they were misfiring from the perimeter in the first half, but they got a stimulus from Kel’el Ware’s offensive rebounding, plus Jaquez and Bam Adebayo added eight field goals in the lane. 

 

They went to intermission ahead by three, and subsequently emerged, pulverizing them with offensive rebounds and second-chance scoring, while adding six trifectas. Ware was the high Heatle with seven points and eight rebounds in the third quarter, and he denied Williamson’s two-foot layup. 

 

The fourth quarter began with the Heat ahead by 11, yet Adebayo and Jaquez had cooled off. Nonetheless, they prevented the Pelicans from getting within striking distance until the last two minutes by getting to the line and shutting off the lane. 

 

The Heat won 123-111. Their next game is on Feb. 20 in Atlanta.

 

Coach Erik Spoelstra said Adebayo was “so rugged [Wednesday]. I think he could have drawn probably three, four, five more fouls if they called them… a lot of our firepower was on the sidelines, or not even here in the building. So quite naturally, we were going to lean on [Adebayo], even more than we normally do.”

 

Takeaways:

 

  • The Heat (29-27) were defeated two nights earlier by the Utah Jazz, who were trying to lose on purpose, and it will take more than beating New Orleans for them to reestablish their credibility. No one should doubt Jaquez, who said in the locker room that they would be hungry after the All-Star break. The issue is that this team gets too comfortable with its work early, and they have trouble sustaining the necessary level of intensity after a short win streak. 

 

  • Ware is hopeful the team can get everybody back after the All-Star break, and said they “should.”

 

  • Adebayo is correct in his assessment that he is one of the quicker big men in the league. He needs to build on this tune-up performance and exploit his rivals more often with his speed. He can be a dangerous player when attacking the lane with a head of steam, and he was on Wednesday, attempting 17 free throws, making 13. To be clear, nobody should expect that many, but there’s no reason why he can’t average at least nine for the season.

 

  • Jaquez scored 20 of his 23 points in the lane, and of all their young players, he arguably has the highest ceiling. It was his third time this year logging at least 20 in the square, and he is shooting a career high in percentage of attempts at the rim and in field goal percentage at that spot. He said at media day in September that he wanted to get back to being a big threat at going to the body and has delivered. He’s the top bench scorer in the paint (10.3), and he is a consistent 3-point shot away from being an All-Star.



Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat suffer one of their worst losses of the season to the Utah Jazz

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The Heat blew it at home against the notorious tankers, who rested their two best players in the fourth quarter. They even had to go to their rookie, who was one of their top two offensive players, but he missed the go-ahead shot in the corner.

 

The Jazz refused to guard the 3-point line, probably knowing that the Heat would slow down eventually. Their massive, three-big lineup recovering 15 offensive rebounds and suppressing the inside action kept them on the Heat’s heels. 

 

The hosts went to intermission down nine points, and Bam Adebayo did most of the heavy lifting to drag them out of the hole. They also got some help because Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen started the fourth quarter on the bench and never checked in for the final stretch. Yet they failed to do the rest, and Brice Sensabaugh dropped Jaime Jaquez Jr. and hit a pull-up triple to take the lead with 47 seconds left. 

 

The Heat lost 115-111. This was their 13th loss decided by five points or fewer (7-6). 

 

Takeaways:

 

  • The Utah Jazz will have to send their pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it falls outside of the top eight in the lottery, so they didn’t want to win this game. That same team, which has had one of the worst defenses in the league, held Miami to 93.4 points per 100 possessions in the half-court, good enough for the 38th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass.

 

  • Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins carried the Heat in the fourth quarter, combining for seven baskets at short and long range. Yet, they missed five free throws in the period, and Jaquez blanked the other two. 

 

  • Kasparas Jakučionis has been scoring from deep over the last couple of games, hitting 75% of attempts. 

 

  • Jaren Jackson Jr. probably hasn’t unpacked all of his bags since getting traded to Utah on Feb. 3. He shot poorly, but made seven baskets in the paint and behind the arc. Coach Will Hardy was asked if he was close to winning him and Markkanen into the fourth quarter, and he said he wasn’t. 

 

  • Rookie Ace Bailey lit up Miami’s interior for a dozen points, which included two lobs.  He was the best player in the fourth quarter, slashing into the lane, making four baskets.

 

  • Kel’el Ware fouled out in 14 minutes in one of his worst showings of the season.



  • Despite the Jazz only scoring nine second-chance points, they still did damage by taking away precious possessions from the Heat. Their most effective rebounders were Jusuf Nurkić (16) and Kyle Filipowski (11).

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat’s cruise control enough to overpower the Wizards in Washington

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The Heat got a break in their schedule, defeating the struggling Wizards in Washington. They had seven scorers in double figures, including rookie Kasparas Jakučionis, who set a new career high (22).

 

Coach Erik Spoelstra said, “We’ve shown that ability to bounce back after disappointing games. It started yesterday with a good, solid film session and meeting.”

 

The Wizards put up a valiant effort in the first quarter, but the guests were in total control by the next frame when Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware detonated in the lane. Six Heatles subsequently drained seven treys coming out of intermission and made the fourth a formality, as it started with a 32-point lead. Only two Miami starters played between four and eight minutes in the final stretch.

 

They won 132-101, and derailed the Wizards’ half-court attack to the 51st percentile. Not one Washington starter shot over 46.2%, either. 

 

Takeaways:

 

  • A win against the Wizards, who are losing to ensure they don’t send their pick to the Knicks, shouldn’t count for anything. It was such a low-stakes game that Spoelstra felt comfortable deploying the shelved, double-big lineup of Adebayo and Ware for some time. They combined for 41 points and 22 rebounds, yet Adebayo was the strongest presence inside, scoring 12 of his 22 points in the lane, and seven were off second chances. Still, his most impressive work was on defense, coming up with five steals by intercepting passes and pressuring the dribble.

 

  • Myron Gardner got his third career start and was factor on defense and on the glass, pulling in seven rebounds, including three offensive. He’s a hustler who does the dirty work to win, and he is carving to a nice spot in the rotation.

 

  • The Heat’s 3-point shooting carried them, and they made 21, tying their third-most of the season. The team’s most prolific shooters were the rookie Jakučionis, who was unblemished in six tries, and Norman Powell, who drained five on 50% shooting. Furthermore, Jakučionis has caught Spoelstra’s eye, and he was played over Dru Smith, who is a favorite of the coach. 

 

  • Andrew Wiggins spent some time guarding Wizards big man Alex Sarr, presumably because the latter is of the leaner build and did decently. This might be a strategy the Heat could use more often against players of a similar build, allowing Adebayo to feast on smaller guys.

 

 

  • Over a quarter of the Heat’s time on offense was spent in transition, putting their frequency in the 99th percentile.  On top of that, Jakučionis had eight of the team’s 26 fastbreak points, and next was Simone Fontecchio (5).
  • This was the 12th time this season the Heat have gone to halftime with at least 70 points (74). They are undefeated in those games. 

 

  • The team has 28 outings left and is three games outside of the sixth seed, which would bypass the Play-In Tournament. They’ll play at home against Utah on Monday and in New Orleans on Wednesday before getting eight days off for the All-Star break. Spoelstra said handling the next one is “very important.” He presumably thinks the same of the NOLA matchup, but he rarely looks past teams.



Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat’s second-half drought leads to defeat in Boston

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The Heat were desperate to atone for their humiliating performance on Tuesday when the 2006 championship team was honored in Miami, and they would have done well if they could have stopped the count early. The Celtics debuted former Heat nemesis Nikola Vučević, and overwhelmed them at close range. 

 

It was Boston’s sixth win since Jan. 26, holding opponents to 100 points or less. Yet the Heat ran up a 22-point first-half lead on a stream of 3-pointers and fastbreak strikes while the Celtics went through an offensive famine. Andrew Wiggins, in particular, had his jumper connect five times across the wings. 

 

They even threw out a full-court press and denied them success in transition. Yet, naturally, their prosperous run expired at halftime, coming into the third quarter inept on offense and missing 14 shots. 

 

It took the Celtics until the end of the frame to tie, courtesy of Jaylen Brown, Vučević and Payton Pritchard seizing the moment with nine combined baskets, five coming in the lane.  On the other side, Norman Powell jammed his finger trying to pass out of the lane early in the third, and returned for all of the fourth quarter. The snowball effect started in the meantime when Boston made consecutive triples midway through third, forcing a Heat timeout.

 

They failed to stop the bleeding, and Spoelstra even futilely deployed the offensively challenged Nikola Jović, and he missed all five second-half attempts. The fourth quarter subsequently turned into the Pritchard and Derrick White show as they both combined for 19 points on short and long-range baskets.

 

The Heat lost 98-96, and it was the fifth time they’ve been held below 100 points this year. They are winless on those nights. 

 

Spoelstra said, “As painful as this is, it’s going to drive us. And I feel we’re going to get there.”

 

Takeaways:

  • The Heat held Boston to a season low in scoring in the first quarter (15), and these are the types of games that highlight how they don’t have enough, and proceeding with the build is a misguided effort. As well as they played early, it was one of the rare nights the Celtics weren’t prepared this year from tip-off. Nonetheless, the Heat are heading towards their fourth Play-In Tournament appearance in a row unless they have a legendary turnaround. Count on the rapture coming first after many of the players know they were bait for a trade that didn’t happen for Giannis Antetokounmpo.

 

  • It’s clear that Bam Adebayo is wasting his time with this team as they are three games out of the sixth seed, which would bypass the Play-In, but now the Charlotte Hornets are on their tail. The Hornets are the hottest team in the league after a superb January, and have piled up eight straight wins as their high-end talent is blossoming. They haven’t done that since 2000.

 

  • Recently named first-time All-Star Norman Powell was a marksman, burying buckets on and off the dribble from short and long range. He is averaging 23 points this season, which is the 14th highest in team history. 

 

  • Derrick White earned his first career flagrant foul on a reckless closeout on Powell’s 3-point attempt. 



Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Heat embarrassed themselves on the 2006 title’s celebration night

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The Heat got demolished against the Hawks on the night they honored their 2006 championship. Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal sat courtside for the embarrassment, yet the only bright spot was the halftime presentation, sitting the former teammates in a circle at midcourt in custom team jackets.

 

They started their skeleton crew lineup and found themselves in a 10-point hole despite Pelle Larsson going to the body and Davion Mitchell racking up four dimes because of weak corner coverage and an inability to hit shots, at one point missing nine in a row.

 

It subsequently got worse, as the Hawks’ bench outworked Miami’s. They also sliced to the lane with little resistance and erupted from deep with seven extra treys, and the Heat went into intermission down 17.

 

The halftime show, which was slightly longer than normal, affected the Hawks on defense, even with five minutes to warm up. The Heat cut the deficit to single digits, but their progress was short-lived due to CJ McCollum taking over the period, nailing shots on and off the dribble from short, mid and long range.

 

Then they got smacked around so hard in the fourth quarter that fans started leaving with seven minutes to go.

 

The Heat lost 127-115. Additionally, they only shot 25% from deep, and allowed 18 points off turnovers.

 

It’s just frustrating because we can still win with 115 [points]…We got to lock in and do the little things, but also, that 3-point line is a big factor in the game,” Bam Adebayo said.

 

Takeaways:

  •  In part because of the absences to Tyler Herro, Norman Powell and Andrew Wiggins, the team was flat in the first half and let the misses affect them on defense. They only allowed six baskets from the corners, but passes into the area still left them scrambling. Coach Erik Spoelstra said postgame that at their best, they are capable of playing good help defense, but it’s a mentality they must improve.

 

  •  Jalen Johnson was the top player, and the Hawks got hot with too many easy shots, and they eventually started hitting contested ones. McCollum and Luke Kennard combined for 10 of Atlanta’s 21 3-pointers. On top of that, their bench was superior, outscoring Miami’s by 23 points. In the locker room, Larsson said the defense was lacking because of breakdowns that created open threes.

 

  • The Heat tied their fourth-worst night of the year, guarding the lane, allowing 66 points. They barely used a zone because of Atlanta’s sharp ball movement.

 

  • Kel’el Ware got beat from inside and out, and was yanked quickly in the second quarter. He also struggled in his nine second-half minutes as well.

 

  • The Heat only led for fewer than four minutes after tip-off. Notably, Dwyane said pre-game in his presser about the 2006 season that the Heat’s record is not good enough.

 

  • Adebayo shot poorly (25%) while seeing mostly single coverage. He missed everything outside of the lane, and he is not a good enough shooter to be trying to fool opponents with a pump fake. He would have more success if he just shot without hesitation.

 

 

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat disembowel the Bulls on the second night of a back-to-back

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The Heat got payback in style against the Chicago Bulls and completed the miniseries at home. It was also the ninth game they’ve played in 13 nights, which included the makeup game from Jan. 8 because of the on-court condensation issue in Chicago.

 

Coach Erik Spoelstra said, “It was a long week…Guys didn’t make an excuse for it and played with great energy, played the right way and it was great to see. We know what we need to work on.” 

 

They broke Chicago’s offense in the first quarter and went into the second ahead by 21 thanks to one of Pelle Larsson’s best offensive spurts of his career, discharging 3-pointers and finishing three shots in the restricted area. Then Bam Adebayo took over the next frame, attacking at short, middle and long range. The small ball Chicago ran was no match for him.

 

The Bulls were desperate to make a dent in the lead, and they kept launching bricks, finishing the first half making 9.5% of shots from 3-point range. The Heat had 32 paint points aside from a 22-point lead at intermission and subsequently wasted them in the third quarter, making the final 12 minutes a formality. The score was so out of hand that Vlad Goldin, one of the team’s two-way contract players who had only logged 54 seconds of action this season on Dec. 19, got seven minutes. 

 

The Heat won 134-91 and had seven double-digit scorers. Seventy-one of their points came in the lane, which is the third-highest mark of the season.

 

Adebayo said, “For us, it’s how can we just sustain this type of way we are playing?”

 

Takeaways: 

  • It’s no surprise when a team shows up in top form, as the Heat did, after they’ve been embarrassed. Even Adebayo said at the postgame presser that’s how the team responds. Consider how they were recently abused in the open court to the tune of 36 points, 10 of which belonged to Ayo Dosunmu. He was held in check to 10 points on 33.3% accuracy and only two on the break, one day after lighting up the Heat with drive-bys and deep jumpers. They got some help from Davion Mitchell’s return after a six-game absence. He gave them playmaking and sharp defense.

 

  • The Heat’s power rotation was unstoppable. Adebayo was a man possessed, and Kel’el Ware, who was benched after three minutes on Saturday, finishing with 17 points on 53.3% shooting, with six rebounds. Four of his misses were from deep. Additionally, Adebayo (10) and Ware (14) scored double-digits in the lane, and the only other teammate to match that was Larsson (10). 

 

  • This was the 17th game the team has logged at least 50 rebounds (54) this season. Their record on those nights is 14-3. 

 

  • Norman Powell missed the game, but was named an All-Star reserve. He joins Jamal Murray, Demi Avdija, Jalen Duren, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Johnson in making it for the first time.



Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Heat got wasted in the second half at home by the Bulls

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They take a step forward and like clockwork, take one or two steps backward in the following game.

 

The Bulls scored 12 straight points without an answer in fewer than five minutes, causing coach Erik Spoelstra to summon the troops. Yet the visitors kept racing down court like the Running of the Bulls through Spanish streets, and they finished the first quarter scoring 14 fastbreak points and claiming a six-digit edge. 

 

It wasn’t much different than early in the second frame as they kept invading the lane, but the Heat countered with a 15-3 run and found gold in Myron Gardner’s minutes. Jaime Jaquez Jr. also ripped up the open court, and the crew got a boost from Chicago’s 14 turnovers heading into halftime with a seven-point lead. 

 

They subsequently surrendered their advantage with a cold start to the third, and Ayo Dosunmu kept producing in transition. They were outscored by 14 in the period, but if it weren’t for Pelle Larsson carrying them and Gardner doing the dirty work, it would’ve gotten uglier. 

 

Bam Adebayo then snapped out of his funk, nailing five consecutive shots in the lane and from the top of the key. But their downfall was committing seven late turnovers and being unable to stop Matas Buzelis and Ayo Dosunmu’s flurry, which included five baskets in the restricted area without a miss.

 

The Heat lost 125-118. They conceded 26 fastbreak points, which is the fourth-most of the year. It was their 11th loss at home this season, too.

 

Takeaways:

 

  • It was the 50th game of the regular season, and the Heat is the 10th seed, two games out of the sixth spot. The Bulls didn’t have their primary guards, Josh Giddey and Coby White, but they still got top-notch production from Dosunmu, who finished with 29 points on 68.8% shooting, with nine assists and eight rebounds.

 

  • Yuki Kawamura, the 5’7 point guard, got his first  minutes of the season for Chicago in half of the fourth quarter, and he was electric, hustling for loose balls, setting up teammates and nailing two 3-pointers.  

 

  • The third quarter was another turd quarter because they allowed 59.1% shooting and even had a four-minute drought that extended from late in the period until early in the fourth. On top of that, Isaac Okoro, who came into the game averaging 8.4 points per contest, scored 11 in the period. 

 

  • Gardner got his first career start, and had his first double-double with 12 points on 80% shooting, with 11 rebounds. Good things happen for the Heat in his minutes because of his high level of intensity to guard and track loose balls.

 

  • Spoelstra had no trust in Kel’el Ware after a poor three minutes. The former’s frustration was palpable at the postgame presser, saying, “I know every press conference becomes about him, and I don’t want it to be that.” He also said that it wasn’t an indictment of his player, but that the game was going too fast because Chicago was using small forwards at center. Furthermore, took blame for not making positive lineups with Ware.